JSerra Catholic dominates 2015 Boras Classic South

Since losing their only game of the season in the first round of the National High School Invitational, the JSerra Catholic (San Juan Capistrano, Calif.) Lions have been dominant, and nowhere was that more evident than at the Boras Baseball Classic – Southern California tournament this week.

Facing some of the top high school baseball programs in Southern California, the Lions won four straight games in impressive fashion. Three of the wins were by shutout, including a 5-0 victory over Mater Dei (Santa Ana, Calif.) in the championship game.

Ranked No. 2 in the MaxPreps Southern California Top 25 coming in, it's safe to say the Lions will move to No. 1.

Jack Owen went the distance against the Monarchs, who the Lions will play three more times this coming week in Trinity League play, as he gave four hits with seven strikeouts and one walk in the scoreless effort.

Meanwhile, the offense made the most of five hits, as three of them went for extra bases. Royce Lewis and Brady Shockey each had a triple while Chase Strumpf went 2-for-3 with a home run and two RBIs.

The Lions (13-1) got a similar pitching performance from Collin Quinn in a 5-0 semifinal win over Alemany (Mission Hills, Calif.). He gave up just two hits, struck out eight and walked only one in his scoreless effort.

Shockey and Lewis led the offense again, along with Christian Molfetta, as all three had two hits each. Molfetta had a double and Shockey tripled for the game's best hits.

JSerra gave up its only run of the tournament in a 10-1 victory over Great Oak (Temecula, Calif.). This time the offense exploded for 12 runs, including a double and triple by Jake Pries and a double by Sam Cohen. Pries finished 3-for-4 with four RBIs while Strumpf was 2-for-3 with two RBIs and three runs scored.

The Lions opened the tournament against San Diego Section defending Open Division champion Granite Hills (El Cajon, Calif.) and won 4-0 on Quentin Longrie's three-hitter. Longrie finished with 10 strikeouts and just two walks.

Lewis went 2-for-4 with two RBIs and Molfetta drove in a pair of runs. Ryan Pena added a double.

JSerra will take on Saint Francis (Mountain View, Calif.), the winner of the Northern California tournament, on May 2 at Cal State Fullerton to determine the overall Boras Baseball Classic champion.

In other final games on Friday, Huntington Beach (Calif.) defeated Alemany 7-0 for third place, Aliso Niguel (Aliso Viejo, Calif.) topped Great Oak 5-4 for fifth place and Woodrow Wilson (Long Beach, Calif.) topped San Clemente (Calif.) 5-4 for seventh place.